Friday, November 23, 2007

Dan Deacon has been setting Baltimore basement parties on fire since the days of his MA in Musical Composition with his Venetian Snares-meets-Playmobil piano electronica. His new album, Spiderman of the Rings sounds like a Shostakovich record that makes you want to eat jelly till you feel sick and need to lie down and to celebrate his awesome seventh LP, Deacon came by to drop some science on us fools. Here are the Deacon ten commandments:1. Get a loop/delay pedal. If as many people who played guitar played loop/delay pedals then music would really evolve at a much more interesting rate.

2. Stop using money. All it does is fuck you over.

3. Book shows in your house. Music, art, dance and theater shows in homes are vital. It creates an atmosphere that no other space can achieve and everyone can do it! There are endless touring artists that are just starting out and would be willing to play anywhere. If you live in a big, dirty house where it can get loud, have big, dirty, loud shows. If you live in a nice, clean place that has to stay quiet, have art shows or quiet shows. Put on plays in your basement. Just about any space is suitable for some sort of awesome shit.

4. Don't be lazy.

5. If you feel there an unbalance, then balance it.

6. Stop having children. We are building our species up to an extinction point. Soon disease and bacteria will re-balance the earth and it will be awesome. So I guess have tons of kids and quicken the process.

9. Stop renting and do all that you can to end the concept of land ownership.

10. Realize that the world is already the nicest place to live, forever.

Spiderman of the Rings is out now on Carpark Records.Tour dates: 3rd December Edinburgh Cabaret Voltaire, 4th Glasgow Nice and Sleazy, 5th Manchester Ruby Lounge, 6th Liverpool Barfly, 7th London The Dome w. No Age

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Hatcham Social are the distillation of every great band from the post-punk and early indie era - Joseph K, Orange Juice, The Pastels, early Primal Scream... Here they are at their top-button paisley shirt finest performing for Dirty Bingo at Clockwork.

Friday, November 16, 2007

A sold-out Twee As Fuck played host to the post-shoegaze electro-pop of The Bridal Shop, George Pringle's i-pod poetry, country-pop Pavementisms from My Sad Captains and a blistering set from the soon-to-be-huge Connan And The Mockasins (and, my gosh, doesn't he look like Brian Jones?)

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Goldsmiths College Union, Saturday 10th November 2007.Crystal Castles stormed the stage, dived into the crowd and broke the smoking ban. These New Puritans held the crowd in a concentrated trance and The Teenagers made one girl incredibly happy when they invited her to sing the female part of 'Homecoming'.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Shy Child that two man, drum kit and keytar combo from NYC (think The White Stripes but without the lady, blues riffs or...actually don't think the White Stripes at all) release the rather good Drop The Phone on November 19th. Check the vid out.

Digitalism are playing a set in Urban Outfitters, 36 Kensington High St, tomorrow from 6pm. If you don't fancy raving amongst pairs of Lee Jeans and Lyle & Scott jumpers they play the Scala later that night.

Friday, November 09, 2007

Legendary electro duo Miss Kittin are to play an intimate gig in London on Thursday November 29th at The Hoxton Square Bar. This is their first gig in the capital since they stole the show at a Gigolo records showcase at Heaven in December 2001 at the height of electroclash and around the release of their The First Album. The duo reformed this summer and have been touring Europe showcasing new material and also classics like Stock Exchange, Frank Sinatra and 1982. Tickets from here

Thursday, November 08, 2007

TNP – the band that brought you Heidi Slimane-approved numerology-obsessed no wave revival and blogs about boiling water and Jacobian tragedies – are playing around the country on the Blyk-backed Unitaur with Crystal Castles, The Teenagers and DJ Mehdi. Their debut album, Beat Pyramid, is out in January.

What was it like recording the album? You did it with Gareth Jones [who produced Wire, Einstrurzenden Neubaten and Liars], didn’t you?Yeah, he’s a genius; he’s like a professor. A load of this record is made out of sampled bits and pieces, and he really brought that out: things like recording underwater or in a park, or sampling knives cutting. We were having a cigarette on the roof of the studio and we started messing about with these barbecue tongs.

What kind of stuff were you listening to when you were recording it?We were watching a lot of movies, unrelated to music, I suppose. We were listening to a lot of dancehall, dubstep and ragga and 20th century classical music.

There’s something quite elusive about your “online presence.”Yeah, we started off as an internet-only band, just doing webcasts and podcasts and stuff.We do like to keep it quite elusive. I really like the aesthetics of terrorist videos – how grainy and far-off yet immediate they seem – there’s something about the fuzzy screen which let’s you add layers of meaning. So it was weird when we first started playing around and about. Playing live still feels weird – I don’t really know how to react when someone talks to me afterwards.

What’s the reaction been like so far?It’s going alright, it's interesting to see people responding to our music – and playing it to people who might be into different groups. It’s weird, though. People either seem to really like us or be, like, visibly disgusted. People often seem to get insulted by us.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Mylo plays London's Canvas and Manchester's Sankeys for Bugged Out this Saturday and next Friday respectively. Isle of Skye's greatest export will be roadtesting tracks for his second album alongside recent club faves. In London he is joined by his band member Williams (who releases on Get Physical and also recently remixed The Knife and Robyn) and prolific Swede John Dahlback who has released something like 20 odd records this year under various guises (which is probably why he doesn't get out much). Further details and tickets from Bugged Out